The Art of Business

Who: Madeline and Shoshannah
Where: Sea and Sky Gallery of Fine Arts
When: Afternoon

She couldn’t believe this. She’d overslept again. There was one point where she’d woke up, decided to make breakfast, and had a plan to make it to work on time but when she woke up again, hours had passed. She sighed, ran a hand through her medium-length hair, and proceeded to bolt around her apartment.

She got herself as made-up as possible, throwing on the nearest outfit she had. She’d gotten in the habit of setting up outfits the night before in case something like this happened so that was what she was doing now as she grabbed the outfit off it’s hanger from inside the closet door. She slipped out of her nightgown and into a black pencil shirt and white short-sleeve blouse, tossing a matching black jacket over the top of it. Then she was rushing for the door, stepping into black pumps and grabbing her purse on the way out.

Mornings when she was on time, Shoshannah usually brought in croissants, doughnuts, and other various pastries depending on her mood, but when she was late it never helped to make things worse by being later. So she hurried to the gallery, stumbling over her heels and cracks in the sidewalk. Luckily no real damage was done, no massive trips or falls happened, and she was bursting into the gallery and up the stairs with a loud, echoing, “Sorry, sorry!” for Madeline.

Madeline was sitting on the edge desk going through the mail that was just delivered, tapping her foot in time to the Glenn Miller record that was playing in the corner. She hated the silence, always had and on the days that Shannah overslept, you could be sure that the gallery was going to have some music or the radio going on. “You haven’t missed anything, don’t worry!” she called out as she looked over one piece of mail, trying to determine if it was important or not.

The two women couldn’t be any more different. While Miss Hagel was dark haired and dark eyed with her blacks and whites, Madeline was lighter, with white blonde hair done up in a bun, held in place with a spare pencil and grayish blue eyes. She was wearing yellow that day: A smart, short sleeved yellow dress with a blue jacket slung over the back of her chair. She looked up with an amused little smile as Shannah came into sight and nodded to what was on the desk beside her. “I had some sandwiches delivered. I figured you didn’t eat yet?”

"What would I do without you?" Shannah asked, heading to the desk to drop her purse there beside it. It was always a relief to see Madeline there. She was a model employee, even more model than Shannah was. "You're a genius, I haven't eaten. And you even got my favorite! Thank you, Madeline. Tell me you charged it to our tab?" Shannah was lucky enough to have a few of the local cafes create a tab for her and Madeline which she paid off at the end of each week. She settled down in her chair, taking her jacket off to place it on the back of her chair. "Well, if you expect me to eat, I expect you to eat. Put down the mail, come on, let's eat."

“Well, I don’t want to find out because it means I would be out of a job,” she teased and tossed the mail down. “Yep, to the tab but I think we’re going to have to change your favorite because Lou at the deli might start thinking you like him.” Considering that Shannah came in late, Madeline was taking time to rib her just a little bit. She wasn’t resentful or upset when it happened and Shannah knew that. Grabbing her own sandwich, Madeline took a little bit out of it. “Glad to see you made it in without a broken ankle.” Being short herself, she should probably wear heals instead of the flats that she did but heels seemed to be just asking for trouble.

Shannah rolled her eyes a little, taking another bite of her sandwich which felt bigger than she did. She covered her mouth as she chewed, little lady-like things ingrained in her from her mother that she never grew out of. When she could talk again, Shannah shook her head. "Oh no, not just me. You're the one that calls in the orders, I just pay for it. Maybe we both should be worried."

Despite her instructions to leave work and just eat, Shannah reached for the mail that Madeline had deemed important enough to reach her. "One of these days, it will happen. Don't be surprised."

“That all those old, eligible bachelors will finally decide that our numerous take out calls are cries for saving from a future of spinsterhood?” Madeline chuckled. Most women their age were already married with two kids in tow. It was certainly not the case for them. “Some queries about possibly featuring some artists and there’s a letter in there marked from the insurance company. Might be about some of the pieces sold from Mark Hopson’s show we did. The ones that the old guy dropped a bunch of money on?” Some of the older and more well to do buyers who’d come to openings tended to be the type that tried to stay ahead of the art curve and insure their pieces for ridiculous amounts of money. As an artist herself, Madeline found it all very fascinating.

Laughing, Shannah put her sandwich down and wiped her hands on the napkin provided by the cafe. "I suppose so, but don't worry. We have each other, don't we?" She joked back. "We don't need Lou...although he does make a better sandwich than I ever could."

With clean hands, she was opening the insurance company's letter first even if she would rather be reading about the local artists. She told herself it would be nice to look forward to that and instead deal with the more business-like side of things first. "Do they need me to sign something? I thought I gave him the certificate of provenance..."

“That’s what it looks like,” Madeline confirmed, knowing that Shannah would rather be doing anything else but such was the business. One that Madeline was trying to learn more about. “He’ll probably want his grandkids to sell it in fifty-years as an original and get a lot of money because he’s probably banking on Mark going crazy and cutting his ear off or an arm off, so he’s going to authenticate the hell out of it. Which isn’t exactly a bad thing but annoying.” She was tempted to ask if Shannah wanted her to take care of it, but she wasn’t sure if that was overstepping bounds or not.

Shannah unfolded the papers in it and sighed a little. "You shouldn't buy art just to resell it again later. It should mean something to you." That was what she hoped this gallery would accomplish, actually. She hoped that she could showcase local artists, people who could touch the city with their art, and hoped that the consumers of this art would be moved by it. This gallery meant so much to her and it hurt to think that more often than not, people were buying this art in hopes of selling it at a higher price later. She needed a tougher skin than she had to deal with this, but she knew there had to be some people in the city who loved art like she did. Madeline was proof of that, she had her faith in Madeline and hopefully it could trickle down from Madeline to others too. Signing the slip of paper inside, she stuffed it back into the envelope and pushed it to the edge of her desk to be sent out in the mail again. She picked up her sandwich in hope that it would kick the bad taste out of her mouth. "Where are we on the Stella pieces? She's going up in the next show. Did she approve which ones she wants up?"

Madeline gave her boss and friend an encouraging smile and got up to go to her own desk and grab the notepad. “She called this morning and said that she had a ‘bout of inspiration and she’s been on a roll’ and has three paintings that she wants to add to the pieces she’s picked out, which are listed here. I told her that I would talk to you about it, because she already has a lot. Not a bad thing, but that means we’re going to have to start looking at shuffling things around. I can understand inspiration hitting you -- happens to me enough times -- but I was kind of surprised by it. And annoyed? So I told her to talk to you. How awesome am I?” Madeline from time to time lost her temper, but she was good about not losing it with the artists or other clients but behind closed doors... “I mean, she has quite a few she wants to showcase already and I don’t know how big these new pieces are.”

She couldn't help but smile a little. Madeline's fuse ran a little shorter than Shannah's tended to and it was sometimes humorous to see her get worked up, but Shannah wasn't ever the one to wish that on someone. She just sort of smiled and nodded while Madeline ranted a bit. "You're wonderful, Madeline," She said genuinely. "I'll drop by her place today, get the measurements for the new pieces, but all in all I think we can make it work. We could start deciding where some of the other artists' pieces go. We have Antonio's works here, that should give us enough to do today."

“I did start working on some layout ideas after Stella called, since three new pieces means we need more room anyway. So I did two so far. Kind of ‘Giant Paintings’, which I doubt they’re huge but best be prepared and then medium sized and where we can fit them the best so everything gets highlighted.” Back to her desk she went where she grabbed her giant sketchpad she had for this particular purpose. “With the amount of people we’re expecting, I tried to keep everything easily visible and accessible but she cannot add in any more otherwise Antonio is going to have to give up spots or we’re going to have to move into the perma-gallery.”

This was something Shannah had the hardest time with: layouts. It was a large part of why she'd hired Madeline. If Shannah had tried to draw this out herself, it would have looked completely awful. She'd be lucky if even her boxes were recognizable. She could take pictures, yes, but physically drawing anything was beyond her. But it was also this sort of practical space issue that she was going to have to bring up to Stella. "So even if Stella's paintings are small enough, we can't fit them without taking spots from Antonio?"

“I’m sure I can figure out a way to make sure they’ll fit but no more than those three because if she’s on the kind of roll I’m suspecting, she might try to squeeze in a fourth. I’m banking on them being about the medium size. So we can make it work but this means Antonio is showcasing fewer paintings, so we have to make a few decisions. One way I figured out to make sure everything fits is to not separate them. Stella on one side, Antonio on the other. I’m not sure Antonio would appreciate that.” Madeline bit her lip and pulled the pencil out of her hair to start scribbling on the layout. “What we can do is erect a temporary wall here in the middle... Break things up. I’m not sure how we can do that though.” It was definitely a new approach. A temporary wall they could put up or take down when needing more wall space. “Whatcha think?”

"A temporary wall..." Interesting. Shannah trailed off, standing and coming over behind Madeline so she could see the sketch. "That might work, but we have to consider building it, figuring out how to make it stable, actually setting it up...But that's really interesting. That way we could put Antonio first because he has fewer items and Stella in the back because she has more... I could ask Antonio if he had three more things, but we're already filled up on space enough as is, aren't we."

“Well, maybe we can figure out how to make it interesting. Not just some straight partition deal but that’s what I was thinking. And there would be enough room if Antonio had two or three more paintings of moderate size then we could pull it off. Or we could offer him something else. But I don’t know who we’d contact about it or how long it would take. We don’t have that much time, but we’d want something portable. Kind of like what we have up here maybe?” There was the partition wall that separated the office area from where storage was and it served it’s purpose well, but in a showroom setting, they needed something that could fit seamlessly.

Shoshannah was smiling more and more as Madeline worked through her thoughts. "Here's what we'll do. I'll handle the artists, get them both feeling like everything is fair, and you can be in charge of the partition wall. It's a great idea, Madeline, really. I'd love to have one for the gallery in case this situation happens again. It's your idea; I'd love for you to take lead on it."

Madeline looked up at Shannah in surprise. She wasn’t a stranger to responsibility or phone calls and finding things out, but it was a different feeling when she was being officially put in charge of something. “I’d be happy to,” she finally said, grasping all those thoughts and feelings together. “And thank you. I’m glad you trust me enough to do this.” It again boiled down to the fact that she was in charge of something for the gallery and the confidence Shoshannah had in her. “When are you going to head out and talk to them?”

"Don't thank me, Madeline. You deserve this. You do great work. You do things I never could. And it's a joy having you here. I want you to feel like you're contributing more than just sorting mail and ordering lunch. And it's a great idea, we should have a portable partition wall for the gallery. Saying it now, it just sounds like a given. Like something we should have always had." Shoshannah smiled at Madeline. She was proud to have Madeline here as an employee and grateful that they were not only boss and employee but friends as well. Madeline deserved a little more responsibility here. "Not until a little later. I want to finish my sandwich first, take a look around...You know, the normal."

Basically, Shannah had two things she needed to do, one that was cautionary and one that was more a ritual. Before she went out to meet with an artist, Shannah usually wanted to give herself some time to make sure she didn't fall asleep. There was never a sure yes or no that she would or would not fall asleep, but some days she got a better feeling than other days. But one thing was set in stone. Shannah always walked by the permanent gallery, which she had split into two separate parts. In the front of the perma-gallery, right by the windows, she had a set up of Angelo's work. Without Angelo or his work, this gallery wouldn't have happened and she thought it was only fitting to pay homage to the artist who started it all. Seeing his art there gave her a sense that no matter what, she was doing something right. Seeing his work there and knowing that even people passing on the street could see it too revitalized any confidence her condition may have stripped from her.

Madeline blushed a little at the praise and couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “You’re giving me a bigger head and we both know this place can’t hold it,” she joked. “Remember, these things don’t happen instantaneously. The gallery is still finding itself. You learn to adapt to changing needs. You go with it. Besides, you’ve had a lot more on your plate than thinking of partition walls and Elle would definitely agree with me, you know it.” She wagged a finger at Shannah and pretended to look stern but it faded away into a softer expression. She knew how the routine worked. You didn’t work at Sea and Sky and not learn Shannah’s daily routine. “Everything is all accounted for and where it should. You’ll let me know if there’s anything you need?” There was a small tinge of concern there. With waking up late that day, Madeline felt it might be up in the air if it was going to be one of the off days or not and she was hoping for Shannah’s sake that it wasn’t.

"You know I won't," Shannah teased with a little smile. "Of course I will," She conceded after a moment. "I'll be all right but if you and Elle have been talking about me behind my back, I'll be very disappointed in both of you," She said, giving her friend a look of mock anger. "I'm fine, really. It happened this morning but it's nothing to worry about. I'll be all right." She'd lied to Madeline the first few time she fell asleep on the job, but it had gotten progressively harder to keep lying and finally she'd told her. She was relieved that now, Madeline didn't seem to think her condition was odd. "How about you walk around the front gallery with me for a little while? Sometimes stopping and just looking at the art is more important than anything else."

Madeline thought the narcolepsy was odd at first, but that’s because she wasn’t used to it. Falling asleep was nothing compared to more destructive issues. That how she saw it anyway. It could always be worse. She smiled at the comment about enjoying art. While Shannah perhaps wasn’t an artist herself, she definitely had an appreciation for it that some artists themselves didn’t even posses. It was probably why Madeline was pointed in this direction all those months ago. There wasn’t another gallery owner quite like Shoshannah Hagel. “Sure. It’s been a quiet day too. We shouldn’t be interrupted.” With spring in just a few days, no one wanted to stay in doors.

Shannah nodded a little, reaching for the last of her sandwich to devour it before heading towards the stairs."Even if they do, they aren't interrupting us so much as giving us the opportunity to share this wonderful art with them. That's how I like to see it, anyway. Tomorrow's when we'll get a lot of the work done, hanging and finalizing layouts and what not. Let's dress down tomorrow," She suggested as she reached for the railing and carefully started her way down the stairs.

“Totally coming in my pajamas. Roger that, boss,” Maddy saluted behind her back and followed her down. What Shannah said got her thinking though. How did she feel about art? How did she feel about her art and what kind of artist did that make her that she didn’t know the answer to either one of those questions.